The problems with Murder Part Two

"Everybody get down" said Steve to the others and then turned and crawled towards the counter to get his gun. "He might take another shot!"

Steve then slowly crawled to the window and carefully peered out he saw a red convertible pulling away quickly and then screech around the corner. He got half of the number plate but he knew that even this would be vital. He turned to his father and Jesse who were leaning over the woman's body.

"Well?" Steve asked getting up and walking over to them.

"She's dead!" Mark replied, "The bullet went right through her head. Whoever that was he was a pretty good shot."

"I'll call the police and the coroner. Amanda can do the autopsy in the morning." Jesse said getting up from the floor and dusting his trousers off.

Steve then bent over the body and began looking for clues as to who she was. He didn't have to search for long. He found her purse under her back and then opened it up to find her driver's licence. It identified the woman as Bobbie Chestler. Steve handed the licence to his Dad and then started to look for other clues.

"Steve she's only twenty-one" said Mark reading the date of birth.

"I wonder what she has done for someone to want to kill her?" Jesse asked returning to the others. "The police are on the way. Oh and Steve Cheryl says that if she comes down her now can she get free ribs?" Jesse laughed at his friend's expression and then crouched next to Mark and they began to examine the body.

"I don't know but we're going to find out!" Mark replied

It wasn't long before BBQ Bob's was swarming with Police. The coroner arrived and took the body back to the hospital. It was late when the three left BBQ Bob's and Mark and Steve sat on their patio looking out over the ocean and talked about the murder for a long time.

"Anyway I'm beat!" Said Steve getting up and stretching

"Yes me too. I've got to be at the hospital at ten in the morning!" Mark said looking at his watch and following Steve into the house and shutting it quietly behind him.

The next morning Steve had already left for work when Mark got up at eight. Mark, stretching and yawning, walked into his kitchen and smiled as he saw that Steve had left him waffles. He walked over to a cupboard to get some syrup and noticed that he had an answer-phone. He pressed the button and then sat down at the breakfast bar to eat his breakfast. "Hi Mark it's Amanda. I've just finished the autopsy on Bobbie Chestler I thin there's something you ought to see! Can you come to the path lab just after eleven and we'll go through it together" The answering machine beeped and cut out.

Mark chewed thoughtfully on his waffle. He couldn't think what the autopsy could show other than the fact that the poor girl had been shot.

He got ready for work and left the house. There was very little traffic because he had missed the rush hour and made it to the hospital in good time. When he got up to the doctor's lounge he clocked in and quickly checked Alex's card. It showed that Alex had clocked in at seven that morning. Mark frowned but had little time to think as a flood of car accident victims were rushed into ER with multiple injuries. As he was rushing between patients he asked one of the nurses to tell Amanda that he wouldn't be able to make it because of the emergency but when the nurse returned Amanda was with her.

"Amanda?" Mark asked puzzled

"I've come to help Mark! You said you had an emergency?"

"Yes well we could use an extra pair of hands. Jesse's not in till twelve!" Mark said gratefully mopping the sweat from his brow.

Two hours later Mark had finished in the ER and walked slowly to the pathology lab stretching his aching back.

"Amanda?" He asked as he knocked on the pathology lab door

"Come on in Mark." Amanda said cheerfully "How are things in ER now?

"Fine. I've just got rounds to do this afternoon! Anyway what did the autopsy show?" Mark said looking at the body and thinking of how pretty the young woman was.

"Well looking at it from a distance it looks like a normal bullet wound, but if you look closer you will see that the bullet didn't go that far in." Amanda said carefully rolling the body over so Mark could see the wound.

"Hmm." Mark said looking closely at the wound. "What would cause that. An extra hard skull?"

"No. I was puzzled so I removed the bullet and looked at it a bit closer. There was shot everywhere and it was only when I cleaned it off that I realised what had happened. Here come and have a look." Amanda said leading him over to her microscope.

Mark looked through the scope and gasped at what he saw. "Oh my God! That's a gold bullet! No wonder the bullet didn't go in far, Gold is soft and will spread on impact. It's obviously someone very rich to be firing gold bullets!" Mark said looking closely at the bullet.

"I'll call Steve and get him to come down and have a look!" Amanda said reaching for the phone.

"Thanks Amanda" Steve said sitting at his desk at the precinct. "I'll be right over."

He got up and picked up his gun from his desk and took a final swig of his coffee.

"Where are you off to Steve?" Cheryl asked as she entered the room and spotted him leaving.

"Amanda found something on the autopsy she did ont ehat woman who was murdered at BBQ Bob's. So I'm on my way there now." He replied

"Oh by the way we solved that rape case late last night!" Cheryl replied getting herself some water from the dispenser.

"Oh really? How?" Steve asked slightly annoyed that the eveing he signed the case over, after weeks of work, it was solved.

"As I was walking home last night he attacked me. Luckily I managed to get my gun and held him off. He's confessed to all thirty rapes! Cheryl said sipping at her water.

"Oh my God are you ok?" Steve asked with concern in his voice.

"Yes I'm fine but I hope I'm not taking all the credit for all the hard work you have done." She replied.

"No you deserve the credit. I came up with nothing the three weeks I was working on the case! I'd best get going now. Have a good day." He replied smiling at her and heading out of the door to his car.

Ten minutes later Steve arrived at the hospital and headed to the pathology lab. When he entered his father and Amanda were sitting at her lap top filling in the autopsy report.

"Hey Amanda." Steve said walking over to them and sitting down at the chair next to Amanda's desk!

"Steve! Hi! Thanks for coming. I found something really interesting in the autopsy come and have a look." She replied and then lead him towards her microscope. He looked down into it expectantly.

"Woah! What have you done to this bullet?" Steve said shocked.

"Nothing it's made with gold!" Amanda replied. "Gold will flatten on impact it's much to soft to be used as ammunition."

"This guy must be rich to be shooting gold bullets!" Steve said looking up from the microscope.

The three sat down to talk about the autopsy when suddenly a nurse appeared at the door.

"Excuse me Dr Bently."

"Yes Michelle?" Amanda said looking up from the laptop.

"Dr Travis need both you and Dr Sloan in ER stat! There's been a chemical spill and there's about fifty casualties on the way!"